CRANBROOK, B.C. — Two men convicted last year of practising polygamy are scheduled to be sentenced today in a B.C. court.

A special prosecutor has recommended three to six months in jail for Winston Blackmore and one to three months for James Oler.

Peter Wilson told the B.C. Supreme Court last month that both men were motivated by sincerely held religious beliefs and are, by all accounts, law-abiding, hard-working and honest.

Blackmore was found to have taken two dozen wives, while Oler was found to have married five women.

Winston Blackmore, the religious leader of the polygamous community of Bountiful located near Creston, B.C. shares a laugh with six of his daughters and some of his grandchildren Monday, April 21, 2008 near Creston, B.C.Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press

The maximum sentence for polygamy under the Criminal Code is five years in prison.

There are only two other convictions for polygamy in Canadian history, but because those cases took place in 1899 and 1906 they do not help in determining sentences for Blackmore and Oler, Wilson said at a sentencing hearing last month.

Blackmore and Oler have been leaders in Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect that believes in plural marriage. They have both been part of the small community of Bountiful in southeastern B.C.